"In writing The Political Theory of Christ (2015), I was addressing a question that had long perplexed me. What is the relationship of Christianity – or, more precisely, what is the relationship of the political teaching of Christ – to the political history of Western society? And in particular: what is the relationship of Christ’s political teaching to the political history of America?

Is Christ's teaching merely something that sits in the background of Western political history while indirectly influencing the political actions of Christians? Or is that teaching something more radical, decisively shaping the course of Western political history?

After many years of reading, it seemed to me that Christ's political teaching was central to the story of Western political history and that Christ's teaching entailed a complete theory of politics. At the same time, there appeared to be no historical masterwork concerning that decisive influence. Instead, there were only bits and pieces of the history of that influence, appearing here and there, and being more hints than an actual thesis.

I thus began de novo, without much reference to the existing political and theological literature, to try to understand the whole subject from the ground up. The result, after many years of research, is this book."